Teenage Angst
by Sowing Poppies
Summary: AkuRoku, high school, AU. 8 through 18. Try to get it right.


Grade 1:

"Hi, my name's Axel." He stuck out one hand and waited for the wide-eyed boy to take it.

"I'm Roxas."

They sat down in the sand next to the swings and watched Pence chase Selphie around the play structure. The girl kept on squealing whenever he got too close, running a few steps ahead only to look back and see if he was still after her.

"Hey, Axel. Why are they doing that?"

"Hmm?" He followed the blonde's gaze to the giggling boy and girl and shrugged. "That's just Pence being Pence. He says his big brother kissed all the girls in his grade, so now he wants to do it, too."

"Oh."

"I think it's stupid. I mean, they're _girls_." Axel screwed up his nose and stuck out his tongue in disgust.

Roxas stared down at his shoes and kicked absently at the sand a few times. "Hey, Axel. Why do people kiss and stuff?"

Axel blinked and thought: _Why are you asking me?_

"Because it tastes good," he said aloud. "Why else would they do it?"

"Taste?" Blue eyes widened as Roxas thought about the possibilities. "Like…ice cream?"

Axel snorted dismissively. "Sure. But _I_ prefer chocolate."

"Oh."

Roxas looked up at him, blue eyes shining bright with laughter.

"Milk, semi-sweet, or dark?"

Grade 2:

Kisses did not taste like anything, they soon figured out.

Axel opened his screwed-up eyes and blinked.

"That was it?"

Roxas sat back, resting his head on his elbows. "Yeah, I guess. Unless we're doing it wrong."

"No, that was right. I see my parents do it every year on Christmas. Well, sometimes they do."

Roxas tilted his head to the side and said, "Oh."

The teacher walked into the supply closet at that moment and almost screamed in surprise. "What are you two _doing_ in here?"

Axel cast a sidelong glance at Roxas and smiled innocently.

"Nothing."

Grade 3:

Their little experiment in the supply closet happened a few more times when Axel got too bored or fed up with the rest of the class to just sit there.

The teacher figured it was their favorite place to hide and left it at that.

Larxene, the tomboy who followed Axel around everywhere, almost found out about it one time, but Axel told her she was a dirty liar and she ran away in tears.

"What?" he snapped, fidgeting under Roxas's blank gaze.

"Nothing," Roxas said.

Grade 4:

Axel found out about soccer that year and refused to shut up about his newfound obsession. As a result, he found people like Tidus who didn't mind listening to him talk about things like which team was the best and who do you think will the next tournament.

Axel's uncle gave him two tickets to a game one weekend, and he dragged Roxas with him.

Afterwards, Roxas told him that he couldn't tell the teams apart and that he had mostly just watched the referee run around and hand people cards.

"Soccer's kind of boring," Roxas said, missing the look of horror on the other boy's face.

Axel refused to talk to him for a week after that.

Grade 5:

Axel's father found out about their little experiments in the supply closet, and Larxene looked guiltily away when he showed up the next day with two ugly bruises on his arm.

"What's wrong?" Roxas asked, trailing his fingertips around the blue-black markings. The teacher had looked anxious when she first saw them, but Axel had just told her that he ran into a desk the day before.

"Axel?"

The boy shot Roxas a sharp grin and said, "Do you want to hang out after school today? I think Wakka just got a new pool and we need to go test it out."

Roxas looked down at his sneakers. "…Yeah, sure."

Grade 6:

Roxas's parents split up, and his mom took him a few countries away to a town Axel can't even pronounce.

He found this out in a scrawled letter left in his mailbox at the beginning of summer vacation.

Axel entered middle school that year and set fire to the science wing on the first day, earning him the hatred of the entire faculty and the adoration of his classmates. Not that he meant to, on either count.

He just did it because of the date.

"Happy Birthday," he mumbled, watching his father argue with his principal through a pane of glass. "Roxas, you _jackass_."

Grade 7:

Axel finally gave in and started dating Larxene; stupid tomboy Larxene who couldn't tell a skirt from a towel from a sock puppet.

She must have figured it out fast because nowadays, she could pass as one of those girls posing in the advertisements for trendy clothes that looked ridiculous on the body of a flat-chested thirteen year old model.

"Dating" was not actually the right word. A few public kisses and handholding after school did not count as "dating".

Axel decided this in his head one day, and it made the not-dating easier.

Grade 8:

Larxene was on his lap; her hands were on his hips, chest, _everywhere_.

They had never gone this far before, but they were still just making out. Axel could do that with anyone. He probably had, actually, not that Larxene needed to know that.

"Hey," Axel breathed, running a hand through her sweaty blond hair. "I liked it better when it was short."

She pulled back, blue eyes darkening. The television was playing some horror movie that maybe scared people fifty years ago but was doing nothing for them now. Her face was cast in a sickly glow from the black and white screen, lips pulled back in a twisted leer as she said,

"You mean when it looked like_ Roxas's_?"

Grade 9:

Roxas came back that year from wherever foreign country he was staying in, telling their homeroom teacher that he decided to live with his father after all.

The man smiled kindly and pushed back his glasses. "Isn't it nice that you already know most of your classmates already?"

Roxas caught Axel's gaze and held it.

"Yeah," the blonde said. "It is."

Axel broke up with Larxene at lunch that day, but he still refused to talk to Roxas besides the occasional "hey" in the mornings.

It wasn't like he was mad or anything.

Axel, he just didn't know what to say.

Grade 10:

Their sadistic history teacher decided that they should "partner up" for the next project in hopes of improving his "appalling grades". Which, incidentally, Axel could not care less about. Only Roxas might kill him if they failed.

They met at Roxas's new flat after school, the one his father had moved into with his girlfriend, and sat in the living room with their backpacks on the floor and an awkward silence hanging in the air.

Axel had survived worse.

"How was your time in…" He made a vague gesture and waited for the other boy to do something.

"Fine," Roxas replied. "It was kinda cold, though."

"Oh."

Axel fidgeted with the hem of his t-shirt for a few seconds before glancing up with a look of fierce determination in his eyes. "You know what? We're starting over. I don't really give a shit about your super extended vacation to wherever the hell it is you went."

Roxas said, "Good. It was boring as hell."

They started talking again after that.

Grade 11:

Roxas opened his locker and a piece of white paper fell out. He picked it up and unfolded it, blue eyes quickly flicking over the page.

"Um…Ax?"

He held it out so that the redhead could read: _BFF, Hayner._

"That guy hates me. Some stupid shit about how I 'broke Namine's heart'." Axel cocked his head to one side and stuffed his hands into his pockets, listening. "So why would the fucker slip letters into my _locker_?"

Axel grinned and threw an arm around Roxas, making him stumble and lean against him for support.

"Maybe because I told him BFF stood for Big Fucking Fag, Rox."

"Oh."

Roxas read the note again, a slight smile playing on his lips.

"_Oh_," he repeated, and punched Axel on the shoulder.

During math, Axel diligently colored in little pastel hearts and rainbows so that every available inch of the front page was covered in sickly hues of pink and yellow. He slipped the paper to Roxas in the hallway during passing period and watched the blonde take it with a grin.

When they met up for lunch, the note had been folded neatly into a card, and a unicorn colored in rainbow markers adorned the cover. Axel whistled in appreciation.

"Jesus, that's _hot_, Rox."

"Thanks."

Axel slipped the card into Larxene's big brother's locker after the last bell rang.

On Wednesday, Seifer sent Hayner to the hospital with a concussion.

On Wednesday, Axel sent Roxas a bunch of dead flowers and a condom.

"Marry me?" he asked, staining his torn-up jeans even more as he went down on one knee in the middle of the muddy field. The football field was empty with everyone still in class.

Roxas dropped the can of coke he had been drinking and kicked it under the stands.

"Sure," he said, and smiled crookedly. Axel's heart lurched at the sight. "Why the hell not?"

Grade 12:

After all the shit he pulled, the one thing that finally got Axel expelled from school was his "illegal possession of drugs on campus". The pot wasn't even _his_.

When Roxas heard, he couldn't stop laughing and Axel had to kick him under the table to shut him up.

"It's not like I needed another year of flunking out of everything," he muttered, slouching lower into his seat.

Roxas smirked and slipped onto his lap, a painful, bony weight, and Axel put a steadying hand on his back automatically. "My boyfriend failed fucking _PE_," he purred, "I'm so goddamn proud."

They kissed, earning them disgruntled glances from an elderly couple two booths away.

"Hey," Axel mumbled into Roxas's mouth. "You taste like chocolate milkshake."

"Yeah? Well, you taste like cigarettes."

Axel laughed and pulled back, green eyes blazing as he asked, "You going away next year?"

"Fuck yes. Pre-med, like my dad, and his dad, and his dad and..."

Axel shut him up by shoving a tongue down his throat.

"Wait," Roxas groaned, "I want to talk about college…"

"Like how you're going and I'm a fucking dropout?" Axel rolled his eyes and smirked. "Because I already knew that."

"No, I was going to tell you which one I finally decided on."

"Let me guess, the one your dad and his dad and his whole fuckin' _family_ went to?"

Roxas laughed. "Nope. Guess again."

"Just tell me, you little fucker."

Roxas pouted, but Axel didn't really care.

"_Fine_." Roxas sighed. "I'm going to that piece of shit university twenty minutes away from here."

"Really?" Axel beamed and wrapped his arms around Roxas's neck, digging his nails in deep.

Roxas didn't wince. "Yeah," he said, and grinned. "I timed it myself."

"So? What does that mean for us, _Romeo_?" Axel's breath was hot on Roxas's face, making him squirm.

"Whatever you want it to mean, _asshole_."

Axel wondered if the strange fluttering in his chest meant anything important.

Roxas bit the corner of Axel's mouth and muttered, "Hey, are we in love yet?"

"We better fucking be."


End file.
